The Evolution of the Shaolin Martial Arts!

Most people say the Martial Arts

came from the Shaolin Temple.

Undoubtededly,

the Shaolin Temple is a big influencer.

But,

my own theory is slightly different.

Originally

I wrote a short column about ‘Og and Bog.’

Og steals Bog’s apples by conking him on the head,

Bog imagines a defense for getting conked on the head,

and we have a technique

and the birth of the martial arts.

Which is to say

from the very first time

one man raised his fist to another,

martial arts have been developing.

Verbal history,

not a reliable thing,

says that Bodhidharma came to Shaolin from the east,

trained the monks in meditation,

and when they proved too weak to meditate properly,

he gave them the martial arts.

But when you look at the exercises credited to Bodhidharma

they look like calisthenics.

So how do simple calisthenics

become martial arts?

Let’s create a possible scenario

to present my theory.

Warlords reigned,

they conscripted peasants,

and taught them how to fight.

How to use the spear,

how to do basic ‘boxing’ (kung fu).

The peasants who survived the battles

might retire to home,

and go to a temple to pray,

maybe even feel a bit of remorse

 about the deaths they caused

and join a temple.

At the temple they want to stay in shape

so they use the basic calisthenics they used in the military.

They even use some of the fighting routines.

But the essence of the temple isn’t in fighting,

and if one is in daily meditation

and begins a regimen in fitness,

it is conceivable that the exercises they did

begin to take on the form of meditation.

No, not every monk is a warrior,

but if even one soldier takes refuge at the temple

translates his military exercises

into meditation…

that might have great influence.

So we have a sort of a criss cross here

between meditation and physical combat.

It’s a maybe,

but a logical sort of a maybe.

Now let’s talk about what happens if a person

 practices a routine for years,

and especially in conjunction with meditation.

He becomes aware through meditation,

and as he focuses his meditation on his calisthenics,

he achieves a different type of awareness in his calisthenics.

He starts to feel this thing called chi,

a ‘breath energy’ circulating through the body.

He finds this thing called chi is difficult to explain,

but if a person is dedicated to motion,

and to the calm and breathing techniques of meditation…

he can achieve a certain degree of awareness of,

and control over this somewhat invisible energy called chi.

And all this backs up various religious theories.

The interesting thing is that Shaolin happened,

and it is so far back

that all we’ve got is theories.

But we have another art that isn’t thousands of years old.

It is influenced by Shaolin, but…

Tung Haichuan

back in the 1800s

apparently knew some kung fu.

He went into the mountains,

met some monks,

and they taught him how to meditate by walking the circle.

Tung Haichuan supposedly combined

the circle walking and the kung fu

to make Pa Kua Chang.

People immediately invested PKC

with all sorts of religious theories.

The eight trigrams,

all that sort of thing.

A good example of a ‘calisthenic’ being adapted to kung fu,

and kung fu becoming more meditative,

just as what probably happened

thousands of years ago at the Shaolin Temple.

And!

If you look at Karate,

it was a martial art designed by and for palace guards.

Heavy duty self defense

and hard core fighting.

In just a bit over a hundred years it has become

heavily infused with zen concepts.

A martial art expanding awareness

through dedicated and repetitious motion,

until it becomes,

in its purest form,

a source of enlightenment

and spiritual development.

AND…

A good question here is

could MMA become spiritual?

I would guess probably not,

and this simply because the techniques are

more dedicated to destruction than control.

The practitioners might even laugh if 

a student wanted to find the zen

behind an arm bar.

Hey,

it may have taken MANY generations

for Shaolin to become more than

a physical calisthenic for ex-warriors,

and to become a method of awareness and control

and not simply an excuse for destruction.

So that’s my theory,

if you feel it is full of holes,

or you feel some other possibility is probable,

leave comments.

I do want to say that when I developed the 

The Last Martial Arts Book: Nine Square Diagram Boxing

I was trying to create movements

that would have meditative aspects

as in  Tai Chi Chuan and Pa Kua Chang.

I wanted to create a degree of spiritual awareness,

and yet have the art be totally workable on the street.

I want the meditation, the control, the spirituality,

but not at the cost of losing the destructive potential of the art.

Check it out on Amazon,

and if you decide to get it,

make sure you…

GET THE EDITION WITH THE 5 HOURS OF VIDEO LINKS!

Give yourself a present,

and don’t forget to give me five stars!

Have a great work out,

and have a great and profitable New Year!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

How to Matrix Meditation

This is how you Matrix Meditation in the Martial Arts

I want to give a win from Justin Harris.
Justin is one of the best martial artists I have seen,
and he really understands the matrixing.
For instance,
here is his win,
his matrix
on meditation.
I have always sidestepped meditation,
except for some specific advice on just learning
not to be distracted,
to extend intention
as a manifestation of awareness.
He goes a lot further than I
and in a lot fewer words.
Here go…

The first and only science of the martial arts…matrixing.

Meditate with this advanced form of Tai Chi Chuan…

Hello Al,

I hope everything is well with you. I have studied the mind and self hypnosis and meditation and qigong and other such mental disciplines since I was about 9 years old. Well after going over the Master Instructor course again in a very thorough fashion it hit me to solve these meditative disciplines and well. It worked. I identified three basics of all meditative disciplines.
Focus, Visualization, and Receptivity (Better Known to most folks as Relaxation or Letting Go).  Every meditative practice (including qigong and martial arts) uses these three basics.

Focus is simply holding awareness on a given thing.

Visualization is creating a thought or image

Receptivity is relaxing and listening or trance state work etc.

For example in martial arts as meditative practice one could:
Focus on an aspect of the practice
visualize energy, applications, etc.
Or practice the forms and be aware of the body and how it moves.

This demystifies meditation in an incredibly useful way. There are three skills to work on. No more saying I focus on my third eye and chant the proper mantra because this is how we meditate. Rather a clear precise aim for gaining the benefits and skills of meditation without needlessly being lost in the mire of traditions and forms. A Western Hermeticist can focus on Kabalah, the Daoist can do Qigong and martial arts, or the Christian can meditatively read the Bible but the inescapable truth is all these seemingly disparate arts only differ in focus and intention NOT in the skills used.

Well I’ve chewed on your ear long enough. I’d like to hear your take on all this stuff. Take care and thanks again for all the help and education!

Chewed on my ear.
Ha!
I love it.
If you are into meditation,
take a look at his words again,
he sums it up perfectly.

And,
as a martial artist,
if you do forms,
you are meditating.
Many people don’t realize this,
think they are just exercising,
body building,
and so on.
But the truth of the matter is
when you are doing a form,
you are focusing awareness
on precise moves.

You are therefore meditating.

You have to invest your body with intention,
which is the focus of awareness,
and you have to make the transition
from posture to posture
without losing sight of the focus.

That is all meditation.

Perhaps you understand what I mean
when I say martial artists are a hope of the world.

Through this meditative practice
they become more focused,
more aware,
which is to say smarter,
more able and competent.

So I thank Justin for his win
and his way of putting it in words,
and I hope it helps.

Oklay dokelay
Here’s a link

2ba Matrix Tai Chi Chuan

Tai Chi is one of the best of the arts
to learn and understand the process of meditating
through martial arts forms.
Takes a LOT of focus
to do a Tai Chi form.
In Matrix Tai Chi Chuan
there are 25 different ways to assemble the basics of Tai Chi.
These qualify as ‘silk reeling’ exercises,
and they give a LOT of understanding
as to how to use Tai Chi for combat.

Interestingly,
learning how to focus awareness,
even in the middle of combat,
is a very high form of meditation.

S,
enjoy,
and,
Have a great work out,
and…

Hanakwanmass!
Al

 

2ba Matrix Tai Chi Chuan

The Secret of Martial Arts Meditation

Secret Martial Arts Meditation!

There is a secret to Martial Arts Meditation, and this secret should be understood before one attempts ANY kind of meditation.

First, meditation, Martial Arts or otherwise, is very poorly defined. Ask any number of priests, buddhists, taoists, or any other religious person about meditation, and you will receive a variety of quite different answers. These answers may differ greatly and lead one in a variety of odd directions.

Learn to listen…then you won’t feel the need to speak.

This writer’s introduction to meditation, for instance, was that if a person could focus his attention on one object for three minutes he could conquer the universe.

Try it. Light a candle or place an object on a shelf, or just have an image in your mind, and look at it and think only of it for three minutes. Hold that focus and do not allow any distraction; think only of that object. It is interesting.

One can achieve more focus in their awareness, and this can help you in life, but doesn’t it seem like there should be more instruction?

What should one focus on?

How does one object relate to all the universe?

Are there tricks to help one focus awareness?

Is this really meditation? Or just a mental trick?

One just feels that there is a truth to be understood here, but there is not enough data to make that truth obvious, even with three minutes, or three months, or three years, or three lifetimes!

So the secret of martial arts meditation is to listen.

Sit and listen to what is happening in the world around you.

Mind you, this is martial arts meditation because in the martial arts one analyzes the force and flow of objects in the universe, and in this simple listening exercise one is listening to the force and flow of objects in the universe.

The one thing that may happen is that you will find yourself focusing on, becoming aware of, tension around the eye area. This is likely because the eyes are the predominate tool of perception, and you are not using them. They are antsy and want to be used. So you have to force them to relax, tell them to relax, and focus on listening.

Do this simple martial arts meditation for three minutes; just listen, without interruption or distraction; when you can do this without break you will find yourself quite enlightened, and quite ready for the next step of meditation.

Do you know the 24 Neutronic Principles? That would give you 24 meditations after you have learned to listen. You can also tap into the ultimate Martial Arts/Yoga meditation routine.

How to Do Martial arts Meditation

Don’t Make the Mistake of Asking the Question!

Good morning to you!
A work out morning!
A morning where you get stronger,
smarter, quicker, faster…
More aware.
Because that’s what a martial arts workout does.

The secret of meditation,
and life,
is to clear the mind of distractions.
Distractions are the bushwah probs and dialogues
and such that you carry around with you.
What did so and so say about me?
Guy in the next department pisses me off.
I need a drink.
And so on.

The martial arts clears the mind of distractions through one simple method:
You learn to focus your awareness on one thing.
I’ve suggested that you hold up your index finger and look at it,
Until you understand what I mean,
but that’s sort of mean.
it’s frustrating because it is the truth, and it is advanced,
and one should really have a proper build up
before they do the single finger meditation.
So here’s the proper build up.

Mind you, i went through this stuff for years,
one piece at a time,
before I figured it out and experienced an empty mind,
but I didn’t have the instructions you are about to get.

When you stand in the room, stand squarely,
that means you don’t lean in any direction.

When you have finally found your balance,
don’t lean (or sway or anything),
just ask yourself the question,
how do I unbalance myself
so that I can move.

It’s true,
the secret of motion from a balanced position is to unbalance yourself.
Walking is the process of learning how to fall in a direction,
and catch yourself on a leg just enough
that you keep falling and catching yourself.

The problem here is that we are not walking.
We are falling to a stance.
And we must fall as fast as we can
to a balanced (front stance) position.

So look at your options.
Do you bend and push with the legs?
What part of the body do you unbalance first?
How do you unbalance it?
Do you move muscles inside the body?
Do you push your body with a hand of energy from outside the body?
Do you pull your body towards an object/direction?

It’s an interesting question,
and one that will drive you half mad
before you finally figure out
how you actually move your body.

Let’s say you move the body with a contraction of a leg muscle
which lowers the body so you can push with a (set of) muscle on the other leg.
What mental command are you giving that first muscle?
Where is that command coming from?
Your mind?
Who told your mind what to do?
Do you understand?
It’s frustrating, and it tends to really mess you up.
But, when you finally work your way through this,
and figure out how, exactly,
you are moving your body,
It will change you as a martial artist.
Heck, it will change you as a human being.
Big time.

And this is just learning how to unbalance the body to fall into a front stance.
Now you get into which muscles are you actually catching yourself with?
What are you doing with the arm?
What torques your body as you fall?
What muscles do you use to align the arm with the action?
Does the arm resist motion to make motion?
Are you using the planet to push yourself?
Or just moving the leg over the surface without sinking your weight?

I used to do my forms for hours,
one move at a time,
looping that move,
grinding that move,
searching for the answers of body motion.
And let me make a point here.

You may think it is silly,
all this frustration for…for what?

But I came across one of my own neutronic quotes this morning,
one of the Master Instructors puts it as a signature at the bottom of his emails. Here is the quote…
“Man learns by his mistakes. Without a mistake a man never learns. Stop a man’s mistakes and you stop a man. Watch a man’s mistakes and he’ll learn every day of his life.”

Now,
consider that when you lose balance it is a mistake.
Of course it is a mistake (grin).
You were perfectly balanced,
and then you went and ruined it!
But that is the process of life.

You are fine,
then you mess it up,
then you find fine again,
then you mess it up,
and so on.

So the procedure of doing a form
is a constant method of finding balance in your form,
messing it up to get to a new point of balance,
then messing it up again to find a new point of balance,
and so on.

And if you don’t ask the questions I have posed in this newsletter,
if you don’t find out how to mess it up…to unbalance…to make yourself make a mistake and fall forward as efficiently as possible. then you are doing the martial arts like a monkey.

Monkey see monkey do, with never a thought as to what causes motion…and what causes life.

You simply must ask the question, else you will never be aware.

Now,
if you want to look at your finger until you are enlightened,
it is possible.
Very possible.
But you simply must go through this concept of unbalancing to find new balance,
of making mistakes to find awareness.
You must.

You must…workout.
A lot.
With these questions in your mind…until there is no question in your mind.
Until your mind is freed from distractions.

Now,
let me add one thing,
the Master Instructor Course is the result of what happens
when you ask yourself these questions
for thirty or forty years.

It IS the perfection of human form,
and it IS the perfection of martial arts technique.
And it has never been done before.
Period.
The stuff in the Master Instructor course has simply never been written about,
and if it was ever stumbled over in a conversation,
there was no point to it all,
no way to relate all the parts
of what I tell you on this course.

So let me ask you a question…
do you want to go through the frustration of asking yourself questions for decades?
Or do you want to get the truth about how to use your body
and how to make your martial arts perfect…right now?

Look, I’m not the first person in history to ask these questions,
but I am one of the few to come up with the right answers,
and I am the only one to ever put down the answers on paper.
Plain English.
Understandable.
Not only no mysticism,
but the death of mysticism.
Because mysticism dies when you replace it with knowledge.

So,
heres the URL,
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4-master-instructor-course/

And have yourself the BEST workout you can!

Al

PS ~ you can subscribe to the Monkeyland Gazette and find out about the Church of Martial Arts at the top of the right sidebar at Churchofmartialarts.com.